security operations jobs in 2026 — demand, top roles hiring, and related skills

As of 2026-10-30, security operations appears in 668 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the past 90 days — Security Engineer has the most postings mentioning security operations, with demand share down 0.6% vs the prior 4 weeks.

Last updated · 90d ending 2026-10-30

Postings · last 90 days
668
Demand vs prior month
down 0.6% vs the prior 4 weeks
Top role · 15.0% of skill postings
Top hiring metro
New York City

Which roles want security operations?

Upload your resume and Skillenai will show which roles your security operations experience fits, which skills you already cover, and what is missing.

Frequently asked questions about security operations

+Is security operations in demand in 2026?

Yes. security operations appears in 668 job postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-10-30. Security Engineer accounts for the most postings mentioning security operations (15.0% of all postings mentioning security operations).

+What jobs require security operations?

According to the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-10-30, among roles with at least 20 postings, the highest shares mentioning security operations are Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) (45.0% of that role’s postings mention security operations), Security Solution Architect (37.0% of that role’s postings mention security operations), Information Security Director (30.2% of that role’s postings mention security operations).

+What skills are commonly paired with security operations?

Across job postings indexed by Skillenai (90 days ending 2026-10-30), security operations most often appears alongside incident response, vulnerability management, SIEM, Cloud Security, Threat hunting.

+Where is security operations most in demand?

As of 2026-10-30, the metro areas posting the most jobs requiring security operations are New York City, London, Singapore, Seattle, Bengaluru, according to the Skillenai jobs index.

+How can I keep up with new security operations content and jobs?

Skillenai indexes news, blog posts, and research papers mentioning security operations alongside the jobs index. You can subscribe to a daily email digest of new security operations content from your Skillenai account.

+Which skills come before and after security operations?

The skill-flow chart shows skills documented in adjacent positions across observed employer changes. An outgoing skill is documented in the following position but not the preceding one. These are ideas to explore, not proven prerequisites, acquisition dates, or levels of mastery. Each ribbon counts employer moves with that skill pair; one move can contribute several pairs.

Weekly indexed postings requiring security operations — last 90 days

Salary distribution

Box = 25th–75th percentile · tick = median · whisker = 10th–90th · USD, annualized

Career paths around security operations

Skills documented before and after this skill across employer changes.

Historical career profiles · all locations

Skills before security operations

Before security operationsSIEM → security operations: 2 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity audits → security operations: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairAccess control violation investigation → security operations: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairTableTop Exercise (TTX) training → security operations: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairadvanced firewalls → security operations: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairVulnerability Management → security operations: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairpKi → security operations: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairconsolidation → security operations: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurityoperationsSIEM: 2 movesSIEM2 movessecurity audits: 1 movessecurity audits1 movesAccess control violation investigation: 1 movesAccess controlviolationinvestigation1 movesTableTop Exercise (TTX) training: 1 movesTableTop Exercise(TTX) training1 movesadvanced firewalls: 1 movesadvanced firewalls1 movesVulnerability Management: 1 movesVulnerabilityManagement1 movespKi: 1 movespKi1 movesconsolidation: 1 movesconsolidation1 moves

Skills after security operations

After security operationssecurity operations → threat detection: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity operations → Network Infrastructure: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity operations → Vulnerability Management: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity operations → SOC 2: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity operations → data classification: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity operations → Data Loss Prevention (DLP): 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity operations → Federal Acquisition Regulation: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurity operations → data centers: 1 observed employer moves with this skill pairsecurityoperationsthreat detection: 1 movesthreat detection1 movesNetwork Infrastructure: 1 movesNetworkInfrastructure1 movesVulnerability Management: 1 movesVulnerabilityManagement1 movesSOC 2: 1 movesSOC 21 movesdata classification: 1 movesdataclassification1 movesData Loss Prevention (DLP): 1 movesData LossPrevention (DLP)1 movesFederal Acquisition Regulation: 1 movesFederalAcquisitionRegulation1 movesdata centers: 1 movesdata centers1 moves
How to read this chart · view counts

Each side is an independent set of observed employer moves, not the same people followed through three stages. Ribbon widths compare move counts within that side. Internal moves are not included.

The following position documents a skill that the preceding position does not. Skills must be linked to both positions, with clear dates and no overlap. One move can connect several skill pairs. These patterns suggest skills to explore; they do not establish prerequisites, when a skill was learned, or a higher skill level.

Source: Skillenai talent graph, historical career profiles. Historical descriptions and coverage can change. Only the leading published connections are shown.

Observed connections and move counts
ConnectionMoves
Before: SIEM2
Before: security audits1
Before: Access control violation investigation1
Before: TableTop Exercise (TTX) training1
Before: advanced firewalls1
Before: Vulnerability Management1
Before: pKi1
Before: consolidation1
After: threat detection1
After: Network Infrastructure1
After: Vulnerability Management1
After: SOC 21
After: data classification1
After: Data Loss Prevention (DLP)1
After: Federal Acquisition Regulation1
After: data centers1

Roles most likely to require security operations

Among roles with at least 20 postings in the same period.

RolePostings mentioning skill% of role postings mentioning skill
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)945.0%
Security Solution Architect1037.0%
Information Security Director1330.2%
Security Operations Engineer1223.1%
Security Solutions Architect623.1%
Cybersecurity Director618.2%
Incident Response Analyst315.0%
Chief Information Security Officer1113.3%
Security Engineering Manager611.1%
Business Information Security Officer311.1%

Roles with the most security operations postings

RolePostings mentioning skillShare of skill postings
Security Engineer10015.0%
Cybersecurity Engineer263.9%
Information Security Analyst192.8%
Security Analyst182.7%
Product Manager172.5%
Information Security Engineer152.2%
Cybersecurity Analyst131.9%
Information Security Director131.9%
Security Operations Engineer121.8%
Chief Information Security Officer111.6%

Top companies posting jobs requiring security operations

Employers ranked by indexed job postings in the last 90 days.

Top companies posting jobs requiring security operations
CompanyPostings · 90 days
CrowdStrike14
Devoteam11
Simility, a Paypal Service11
Paypal10
Palo Alto Networks10
Cisco9
Kyndryl7
Mastercard7
Anthropic7
Google6

Job postings indexed over the past 90 days, grouped by resolved employer. Counts are postings, not hires. Companies without a published page appear without a link.

Top metros hiring for security operations

NamePostingsShare
New York City253.7%
London162.4%
Singapore131.9%
Seattle111.6%
Bengaluru101.5%
Boston91.3%
Chicago91.3%
San Francisco91.3%
Sydney81.2%

Skills commonly paired with security operations

Explore related pages

How this was computed

Weekly job-count charts omit the incomplete current week (weeks start Monday, UTC). Totals include all postings in the stated window. Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-10-30. Skills are resolved against the Skillenai canonical taxonomy, so the same entity is counted whether a posting writes 'Python', 'Python 3', or 'python'. Role prevalence divides postings mentioning security operations by all postings for each role in the same window, ranking roles with at least 20 postings. Role distribution divides each role’s security operations postings by all security operations postings, including postings without a role. Shares need not sum to 100% for the displayed roles. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-requested skills). Adjusted posting share: 0.2% to 0.2%. Demand share change is the relative percentage change between these adjusted shares. Each employer-and-ATS group has at least 10 postings in each 90-day window; its earlier posting count supplies the same weight in both windows. The panel includes 2,482 identified employers and covers 71% of earlier and 70% of latest indexed postings. Windows: 2026-06-30 to 2026-09-28 and 2026-07-28 to 2026-10-26 (UTC; end dates excluded). The windows overlap by 62 days. Dates reflect indexing, not the employer’s posting date. This measures posting mix, not total hiring or market-wide demand. Matching excludes entrants and exits; changes in crawl completeness within an employer or ATS can still affect the result.

source
Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
entity_id
6149caea06b81fc2
data_as_of
2026-10-30
window_days
90
Compiled by Jared Rand · Data sourced from the Skillenai labor market index